MOTORCROSS: A broken leg has not stopped Macclesfield's Stuart Brown becoming a British sidecar champion.

The 30-year-old self-employed joiner and his team-mate Luke Peters clinched their first national championship by winning the final races of the season in Oxfordshire.

That was despite breaking his fibia in a challenge race in Latvia two weeks ago.

Brown was in the mood to celebrate victory as soon as his team had gained enough points to clinch the British title.

He said: "We had three races over two days last weekend, and we won all three.

"After winning the first race, we had a bit of a party on Saturday night - but we still won the other two races on Sunday. It was fantastic.

"The weather was wetter than I would have liked for Sunday's races, but we just got off to a great start and never looked back."

And there was more good news for Brown. His leg is now on the mend after that break in Latvia.

"I did that a couple of weeks ago. It was in a race for the top three teams from each competing country," Brown explained.

"We were leading the qualifying race when we went over a jump and landed on the flat instead of the down ramp - and another bike smashed into us.

"I was lucky, because it was the sort of collision that could have taken my leg off. I'm limping a bit at the moment, but it's not too bad."

Injuries are an accepted hazard of a sport that requires competitors to hurtle round dirt tracks at 80mph on a motorbike-with-sidecar.

And the broken leg is not the first injury Brown has suffered in the name of the sport, though - nor is it the most serious.

He almost had to have a leg amputated after a bad crash in Belgium a few years ago.

Despite his injury, it has been a season to remember for Brown, who lives on the Western Estate, and his Oxford-based team-mate Peters.

They have just finished sixth in the World Sidecar Motorcross Championships - as the top British pair.

Not a bad achievement, considering that they could not afford to fly their equipment to the race venues across Europe, and instead have had to drive thousands to places such as Bulgaria and Latvia just to compete.

"We said at the beginning of the year that our aim was to finish in the world top ten, so to finish sixth is fantastic," Brown said.

The triumph is the realisation of an ambition Brown has held since childhood.

He was introduced to the sport as a four-year-old by his father Norman, himself an amateur rider.

Now Brown wants to build on his achievement.

"We are getting quite a lot of publicity in the biking world for what we have achieved. But we're starting to look ahead to next year now. We want to try to drum up some more sponsorship."

Brown and Peters have already had plenty of help from Macclesfield-based companies such as Dyno-Rod and Adams Scaffolding, but they need more sponsorship to continue to improve.

"It's a difficult sport to compete in financially," Brown said. "There's a lot of travelling involved, and we've had to take three months off work to fit in all of the races.

"Every little bit helps, so we're grateful for anyone who can sponsor us."

There should be a few companies queuing up as Brown's profile starts to rise.

"It's been a bit strange this season.

"The highlight was when we went to Bulgaria, and were made to feel like superstars.

"But then I came back to Macc and nobody knew who I was.

"But things are starting to change - I've been interviewed by Silk FM this week. Suddenly I'm getting lots of publicity. I'm not used to it."